Chapter Nine: a Surprise Host, a Serum and Insanity

7:04 pm Thursday

"Lana?"

Chloe watched bewildered as the person she thought her friend stepped into the room, a mock surprised expression on her face. Lana told the three guys to go and they obeyed; banging the door behind them. Lana and Chloe were alone.

"Lana! What are you doing?" Chloe said confused.

"Something that Lex didn't deem necessary, but I do." Lana said cryptically.

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked exasperated, trying to understand. "We're friends. What are you doing?"

Lana just smirked back.

"If we're friends Chloe, why didn't you tell me about this? About you investigating Level 33.1?" Lana gestured around the office.

"That's different!" Chloe argued, "Lex shouldn't be doing those experiments! I didn't tell you because I knew you loved Lex. I didn't want to get you in the middle. Who knows what Lex would have done if you'd known!"

"Well thank you for thinking of me." Lana said sarcastically, putting on a grateful expression. "I am so glad that you did."

"Look, Lana. You don't have to do this. Lex obviously tricked you. Just tell him that..."

Lana interrupted Chloe with a laugh. "You have no idea do you? After all this investigating, you have no clue."

"What?" Chloe was puzzled even more. Lana knelt on the floor in front of Chloe and put on a sympathetic face.

"I'll say it so you understand. Lex has not told me to do anything. I'm not as innocent as everyone thinks. Not as oblivious. It's just a cover. I'm pretty good at it, aren't I?" Lana stood up and leaned on the desk. Chloe just sat there silently, with a confused expression, so Lana took it as an invitation to go on.

"I have known about Level 33.1 for a while now. In fact, I am helping Lex with Level 33.1. I make my own decisions, as I said; Lex hasn't told me to do anything. Why, Lex doesn't even know about this! When we saw the tape of you sneaking into the barn he said to just leave it, if we lay low it will all go away, that that was the best option. He said that kidnapping or killing you wasn't an option because you had too much information on us and too many other people with you. But I begged to differ. Because Lex doesn't know you like I do. I knew that Chloe Sullivan would never go away, not until she got her story, until she got what she wanted. So I planned this! I planned this break-in, this kidnap!"

Chloe burned inside. She just wanted to scream. How could Lana do this? They were friends! Well, Chloe had thought they were. But all this time, Lana was working with Lex. Chloe just couldn't comprehend it.

"Well then, Lex isn't going to be happy, is he? When he finds out?" Chloe wanted to try and find a loophole; anything to stop Lana from going through with her plan.

Lana knelt down again and put her hand on Chloe's cheek. Chloe flinched. "No, Lex doesn't know, but that doesn't mean he's going to be angry. No, he'll be happy! He'll be happy I fixed everything. Don't worry Chloe, you won't be able to do anymore damage." Lana stood up and opened the door.

"Curt! Raymond! Kyle! Get back in here!"

The three thugs were instantly at the door.

"I want you to search this whole place until you find the documents. If you don't find them here, go search Chloe's apartment. And if that meddling cousin of hers gets in your way, just bring her in too." Lana ordered. "But right now, I want you to take Chloe to Level 33.1. I mean, she wants to see what it's all about, might as well get a firsthand view. And anyway," Lana grinned, making Chloe's blood turn to ice, "Lex had a new serum that needed testing. So if the information is not here or at the apartment, I'll get Chloe to talk. Believe me." Lana stalked out of the office, motioning for the guys to follow.

Chloe struggled as the hand cuffs were taken off and Kyle grabbed her by the arm, dragging her out of the office.

"You're insane! You can't do this!" Chloe screamed. Lana laughed softly and glanced over her shoulder.

"Honey, you just watch me."

--

8:19 pm Thursday

"Hopefully Chloe came to the base, like she said she would." Bart said as him, Oliver, A.C and Victor made their way through the storage buildings to the entrance to the HQ. "Otherwise we won't be able to get to the information we sent from the mission."

"So do I. This may be our first hard evidence in a while." Oliver agreed as he lent down to brush dirt away from the trapdoor. Suddenly he froze. And then he spoke the words that everyone had feared.

"The alarm's disabled and the trapdoors been recently opened. Someone's inside."

Slowly, without even a creak of sound, Oliver lifted up the trapdoor. He peered down. From what he could see and hear, the hallway was empty. He tightly clutched his bow and descended down the ladder, the others following closely behind.

He jumped soundlessly down to the ground and immediately lifted his bow to shoulder height, but then lowered it. As he had suspected, the hallway was empty. But every door in the corridor had been thrown open, and Oliver suspected that every single item in those rooms had been taken.

"Oliver, look." Victor slipped past and knelt down. He pointed to the smashed debris of a phone lying on the ground. "That's Chloe's phone."

Oliver's expression turned hard. "They've taken her."

"Hey, well look who it is." A gruff looking man came out into the corridor from Oliver's office, a gun in one hand, a knife in the other.

"Where's Chloe?" Oliver demanded, raising his bow. The man raised his gun in response. Without another word, Oliver fired the arrow. It hit the man's shoulder, before he even had a chance to react, and sent him flying backwards.

Oliver strode over to the man and glowered at him with dark eyes. "I'll ask one more time; where is Chloe Sullivan?"

"Hey!"

Oliver whirled around as another man came charging at them. Victor stepped into his path and swung his arm. The second man was thrown backwards from impact, thudding to the floor, unconscious.

Oliver turned his attention back to the first man, whose eyes were clouding over in pain. "Tell me where she is; now." Oliver said forcefully, gripping the arrow and pushing it deeper into the wound. The man groaned in agony.

"She's at Level 33.1." The man finally answered. Oliver stood up and kicked the man's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Bart; get Lois, Jimmy, Kara and Clark, tell them it's an emergency and that were going to meet at the farm, but don't tell them what the emergency is, we don't want to panic them yet. Victor and A.C; check Chloe's office and the other rooms; see if they've taken everything. I'll check my office and see if they've broken into our secret room. We have to act fast. Who knows what Lex is doing to Chloe?"